British Airways may order new A380s

Airbus is in talks with British Airways to sell more A380s after securing order from Emirates for additional 36 aircraft. Private talks between Airbus and IAG Group (British Airways parent company) has been going on in a bid secure a deal, sources close to Airbus have told Bloomberg.
IAG group had said in the past that it was looking to add six to seven second-hand A380s, but now considering new ones after Airbus confirmed to keep the production line open after Emirates deal and refurbishing used planes would be too expensive.

British Airways looking to buy bigger planes because to maximise the passenger capacity per flight as its London Heathrow hub is running close to its capacity limits and find difficult to obtain slots.

In the mean time, two of Malaysia Airlines A380s are flying Muslim pilgrims to Saudi Arabia on trial services, and says to establish the operation as a new division as early as the end of this year.

The new deal could be the turning point for A380 program. However, Airbus says that it will keep the production line open for more than a decade, but still looking at slashing the build rates to only six per year from 12.